Advice on changing from Bankia to Starling online account

Posted: Mon Jul 6, 2020 10:35am

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Having been with a Spanish Bank account for many years the current high monthly non resident charges have caused us to look for a cheaper alternative.

Does anyone have any experience and advice on the ease or difficulty of moving Iberdrola, Hidraqua, the Community Charge, Mapfre and Suma charges to an online UK account such as Starling? In addition any knowledge of how to pay the non resident tax payable on 31 December yearly ?

Any help would be very much appreciated as Spanish charges for us, including two Bankia cards are now totalling approx 220 Euros a year.

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Posted: Mon Jul 6, 2020 5:39pm

jimtaylor

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Posted: Mon Jul 6, 2020 5:39pm

I suggest you check with Cajamar re their non-resident account.

As regards paying non-resident tax:

https://www.costablancaforum.com/area/almorad%C3%AD-spain-11/taxes-suma-nie-tax-advice-in-almorad%C3%AD-25/jims-tip-non-resident-tax-returns-for-20-inc-payment-51142/

Posted: Tue Jul 7, 2020 6:43am

Kenbo

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Posted: Tue Jul 7, 2020 6:43am

Santiago wrote on Mon Jul 6, 2020 10:35am:
Having been with a Spanish Bank account for many years the current high monthly non resident charges have caused us to look for a cheaper alternative.
Does anyone have any experience and advice on the ease or difficulty of moving Iberdrola, Hidraqua, the Community Charge, Mapfre and Suma charges to an online UK account such as Starling? In addition any knowledge of how to pay the non resident tax payable on 31 December yearly ? ...

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Any help would be very much appreciated as Spanish charges for us, including two Bankia cards are now totalling approx 220 Euros a year.

I have both a Starling account and a Transferwise account.

I am also with Bankia and opted to move my direct debits to Transferwise which work perfectly.

In January I visited the local offices of Hydraqua, Iberdrola and Suma and gave them the Transferwise account number, community fees by telephone call.

I intended to close the Bankia account when over in June but the virus prevented travel, I will do this in September.

Posted: Tue Jul 7, 2020 11:51am

Santiago

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Location: Guardamar del Segura

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Posted: Tue Jul 7, 2020 11:51am

Thank you very much for your response. This will help us make a decision.

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Posted: Tue Jul 7, 2020 1:56pm

paulsav

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Posted: Tue Jul 7, 2020 1:56pm

Hi, as Jim has recommended, I changed to Cajamar online account called "Weferrent" over a year ago and wished I,d done it 10+yrs ago before Sabadell had over 2000€ in fees of us. They are superb, no fees for non residents, google their website in english and now app too (wasnt when I joined them). 25€ for non resident certificate should be all you pay per 2 yrs. Non residents must apply in branch not online, use google translate if no english speakers, they change direct debits if you take your info(I took all my old statements showing ref no,s) however must admit I followed up with emails to all companies as a confirmation just to ensure no problems as I had cancelled Sabadell same day as opening. Just a tip, they didnt add "transfers"initially on setup, seems you have to "contract it" ie. its an extra signed for service(no cost) so ask on setup to include it.

I also use Angar for my non residents payments, highly recommend,

Regards

Pauline.